AOL bought the Huffington Post over the weekend for $315 million dollars, All Things D reported.
The site will become part of a new group at AOL called The Huffington Post Media Group and Arianna Huffington will become the editor in chief of the group which will also include other AOL properties Engadget, Moviefone, MapQuest and TechCrunch, All Things D noted.
Huffington told Kara Swisher, All Things D columnist, “content for all these sites will be integrated deeply into the Huffington Post, giving it a huge new infusion of editorial material.”
TechCrunch posted an internal memo from AOL CEO Tim Armstrong detailing the acquisition to employees. It included:
“The Huffington Post is core to our strategy and our 80:80:80 focus – 80% of domestic spending is done by women, 80% of commerce happens locally and 80% of considered purchases are driven by influencers. The influencer part of the strategy is important and will be potent.
The Huffington Post is a strong influencer brand and it attracts a valuable audience, including a great focus on women’s content. In addition, Arianna Huffington is a world-renowned expert on women’s topics and issues, and has enabled The Huffington Post to grow rapidly by continually developing new audiences.”
Guess Tim does not see Arianna as a political journalist and commentator.
He did note the increase in numbers the buy would bring to AOL. “Together, AOL and The Huffington Post will have 117MM unduplicated domestic monthly UVs, and ~270MM monthly UVs worldwide (according to comScore Dec 2010), the memo stated.